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Five young men who brought down Dutch government Web sites in late 2004 were sentenced to detention and community service on Monday. The main defendant will appeal.

The District Court in The Hague, Netherlands, sentenced 18-year-old Eric de V., the prime suspect in the case, to 38 days detention and 240 hours of community service. The detention sentence equals time already served. Additionally, De V. was given a six month suspended sentence with two years of probation.

De V. told WebWereld that he plans to appeal, although he is not displeased with the punishment. “I can agree with that,” he said. His gripe is the way the court came to its conviction. “No technical evidence was presented for the attacks. … I have been convicted because of statements I made,” he said.

During the distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks on Dutch government Web sites, De V. acted as spokesman for the attackers. He was interviewed on radio and television.

Furthermore, De V. feels that his sentence is too harsh compared with the other defendants. “The other guys are just as guilty,” he said.

Four other members of hacker group “0x1fe Crew” were given suspended sentences of between one and two months in prison with a two-year probationary period. The defendants also were given work orders of between 80 hours and 120 hours. Three of the five accused are minors.

The attacks downed several Dutch government Web sites, including the main government portal.